Intel Atom Z560 vs Intel Atom Z550

Intel Atom Z560

The Intel Atom Z560 is a relatively high clocked Atom processor of the power efficient Z-series. It is specified at a much lower TDP than the similar N-series and offers hardware virtualization (VT-x). Due to the in-order execution, the performance per clock-rate is not as good as Celeron or Core 2 Duo processors. The missing Intel 64 Instructions wont allow a user to install a 64 Bit operating system on the Z550.

Intel Atom Z550

The Intel Atom Z550 is a power saving netbook / MID single-core processor. Compared to the Atom N-series, the Z-series supports Virtualization in hardware and got the Idle States and Demand Based Switching functions. Therefore, the Z-Series also has a lower TDP rating.

The Atom core was designed for a low power consumption and cheap production. The downside is the relative low performance per Watt (due to the in-order execution) compared to similar clocked Celeron processors, e.g.. Still the integrated Hyper-Threading (the operating system sees the CPU as a dual core CPU) decreases the penalty of the in-order execution a bit.